Beneath the Skin
by Kuroi-cho-tsuki-shiro
Summary: Time is running out for Rukia in the world of the living as the differences between her world and Ichigo's become clearer. A series of shorts based on the story of Bleach from Rukia's point of view. 6
1. Chapter 1

Whenever she wanted to be alone, Rukia went to high places. Her earliest memories were of seeking out such sanctuaries. Always in plain sight, but always where no-one would ever look: the highest, thinnest branches of trees, the crags of hills, and mountains that no-one else climbed, the peaks around Rukongai where she had grown up. She had spent too much time in the gutters back then and it had always seemed to her that the open sky offered a sweeter solitude than time spent lost in a crowd. The world of the living was full of such places. The humans had built great tower blocks, but they very rarely ventured to the highest points. When she had been on duty, she had spent her time looking down on this world, from rooftops, telegraph poles and trees. Her _gigai _body was a little limiting, but she could still reach the rooftops and this was where she went when she needed to think.

She had scaled the fire exit of this particular building. The roof was flat, without railings. She could sit on the edge, her legs hanging over the drop, her feet swinging above the headlight trails of cars below.

Another week had passed. Urahara had healed her wounds. He'd been uncharacteristically ambivalent about the episode, having neither scolded her nor warned her to be more careful. She suspected his silence was a symptom of pity and that, in some ways, was worse than reprimand. She was growing uncomfortable in this body. _Gigai _were for short term use only; it was the nature of body and soul to become attached to one another, but, for a being made out of spirit, that synchronisation was discomforting. Bodies were slow, dull things. When she flexed her arm now, she could feel the sinews moving, the shunt of the muscles and the creek of the bones:

"This is wearing out," she murmured to herself: "I'm running out of time." Inside the _gigai _her soul felt paper thin.


	2. Chapter 2

She went to Urahara's earlier than usual that morning. The shopkeeper was yawning and scratching the stubble on his chin when she arrived, but he was already dressed in his usual calf-length green coat, ridiculous hat and clogs. He seemed to strive for eccentricity in the same way that Rukia herself strove to blend in. He seated himself on a dais at the far end of the shop and Rukia knelt beside him, fishing out a crumpled note she'd written to herself the night before: "This thing's getting rusty," she said, pinching at the skin of her forearm. Urahara sniffed:

"You've been in it too long. Your soul will start to fuse with it. What do you want me to do?"

"Do you have anything for it?"

"I could give it an all-over examination," he offered, his eyes roving thoughtfully over her body. When they returned to her face, she was glaring at him:

"That won't be necessary."

"_Somafixer _then?"

"Yes."

"What kind?"

"The cheapest. And batteries for the sensor."

"What type?"

"D. Yes, D. Do you have my order in yet?"

"Yes." He glanced up and called to one of the kids who seemed to make the store their home: "Ururu, go and find Kuchiki-_dono's _order, please." The girl, who was skinny with long black bangs that hung over her eyes, started then dashed away into the storeroom and silence descended on the shop. Urahara's pen scratch-scratched a doodle on the paper in front of him and Rukia, murkily aware of unspoken reprimands, rose in anticipation of leaving.

Ururu returned a moment later with a small parcel in one hand. She handed it to Rukia who unwrapped the soft cloth and studied her purchase. It was difficult to hide her disappointment:

"This isn't the one I ordered. Was this the only one they had?"

"That's all I could get."

"It's fine," she said. There was an atmosphere in the shop. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly, but she felt uncomfortable and somehow she knew that Urahara wouldn't let her leave without getting a word in:

"Rukia," he said, as she reached the door, and her heart sank. When she turned back, his eyes were serious under the brim of his hat: "This can't last forever."


	3. Chapter 3

"What do you want?"

Spring had faded into summer. The schoolyard was empty save for Rukia and Ichigo. He was standing over her, his hands stuffed into his pockets. He resented missing lessons, Rukia had discovered. Despite appearances, he was disciplined and conscientious in class. And since he'd introduced her to his friends, he'd been more reluctant to skip classes and meet her. It seemed that, as time went by, he became more and more aware of her, as a presence, as a constant, as someone that others even might notice. At times, she felt that same awareness for him, hard as it was to explain: a mixture of surprise and guilt and pleasure that made her skin prickle. Right now she could taste it, a part of the humidity in the air.

"I got you something." She shoved the package into his hands and crossed her arms.

"What is it?"

"Open it."

"Candy?" He cast away the fabric and studied the pez dispenser her was now holding: "Why does it have a duck's head?"

She flushed:

"I tried to get the rabbit."

"A bunny?"

"Chappie is the most popular character!"

"Why do they have characters?"

"The Association of Female Soul Reapers felt that it made their appearance less formal."

"And you wanted to buy me Chappie the bunny?"

He was laughing at her, she realised, and she felt the heat rise in her face and behind her eyes:

"It's a gift!"

"Okay, okay. Sorry. Thank you." He read the side of the dispenser: "Soul Candy."

"Try one. I was thinking: if ever I'm not around, you might need some way to get out of your body and assume your _shinigami _form. Those sweets contain false souls. While your own soul is absent, they inhabit and animate your body."

As Ichigo popped one into his mouth, it wasn't clear that he truly understood, but, a second later, his body fell backwards, leaving him standing in the schoolyard in the characteristic black _shihakusho _of a soul reaper. He checked behind him at his human form:

"Woah! I'm really out!"

"Yes."

His body, initially inert, now stretched and stood up. It was strange to see that body inhabited by a different soul. Ichigo's constant scowl had been smoothed out of his features. True, it was still his face, but it had been re-arranged somwhow into an amiable smile that looked wrong. Ichigo himself, looking on from his spirit body frowned deeply:

"Is he meant to replace me?"

Rukia's hollow sensor started beeping.

"Crap," she muttered: "Let's go."

His body lifted its head and gave a wide, naïve grin:

"Don't worry," it said: "I'll take care of everything." Rukia caught Ichigo's arm and started to pull him away:

"I said: let's go!" she insisted.

"I think people will notice!" he cried.

"Early to bed, early to rise, and always work hard. That's my motto," said his body, still smiling affably.

"Dis you hear what it said?" Ichigo moaned as it dragged him out of the schoolyard.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a small hollow. Ichigo dispatched it quickly, while Rukia stood by, the only one of them who would be visible to others in the street. As far as anyone might see, she was a lone schoolgirl, leaning against a lamp-post, staring at nothing in particular.

In fact, she was feeling less and less comfortable in the _gigai. _Was it her imagination? It was nothing she could define, just a sense of fading further and further away from the spirit world. Watching Ichigo fight was like watching images on an old film. She had dragged him here by the sleeve of a kimono she could barely feel through these fingers. But the human world, the ebb and flow of crowds in the street, and the dusty, sun-worn path by the river, those things felt more real to her now than they ever had done before.

"Right, let's get going," Ichigo said. He had barely caught his breath having finished the fight, but his face was set and stubborn as he walked past her.

She caught up with him on the path beside Karakura River:

"What are you worried about?"

"I don't like that thing being in my body."

"It'll be fine. That's what they're designed for."

"I just have a really bad feeling about it."

And when they reached the school, she had to admit, it looked as if he was right. They heard the ruckus before they rounded the corner. The window of the second floor classroom was broken and there were sounds of shouting and of girls screeching inside. Ichigo broke into a run. Rukia might have followed had she not remembered, at the last moment, that, unlike Ichigo in his current form, she was not capable of leaping in through a second floor window. Without waiting for a signal from him, she broke away and sprinted for the high school entrance.

Impossible! How could anyone in that class have guessed it wasn't Ichigo in that body? But, if they hadn't guessed, then why the uproar? It was a _gikon, _a lump of soul candy! The soul inside would behave just as it had been designed to; it would mimic human manners, be amiable, friendly, and polite too. True, that didn't sound much like Ichigo, but it wouldn't have, couldn't have, caused this kind of trouble.

She was panting by the time she reached the classroom. She slammed the door open and stared. Ichigo, or, rather, Ichigo's body, was lying flat on its back on one of the desks. It had taken Orihime Inoue's hand and was kissing it while the girl flushed rose red.

"You!" roared Rukia.

The body sat bolt upright: Inoue, her hand and the kisses, forgotten. Seeing Rukia, it leapt off the table and ran for the window, only to be intercepted by a black-clad figure. Rukia watched with a growing sense of helplessness as Ichigo's body lunged for his soul. The _gikon, _which should have had only a little more strength than an ordinary human, punched Ichigo in the stomach, then in the face. It was fast. Far faster than him, even in his spirit form. Having hauled him in through the window, it lifted him bodily and hurled him across the room. The other students couldn't see him, but they saw the desks and chairs knocked aside by his passage. Several wailed aloud at the sight.

The _gikon, _still wearing Ichigo's body, leapt out of the second floor window.

Ichigo himself cried out in horror from where he'd fallen amongst the scattered furniture. Rukia ran to the window. She was in time to see his body land safely and then start to run, but it was no ordinary sprint; the figure blurred as it picked up speed and was then lost to her eyes altogether: "Impossible!" she cried.

Ichigo was by her side, his expression and his voice rough with horror:

"That's me! I mean, that's my body!"

"We have to go after him!"


	5. Chapter 5

chigo didn't need to be told twice, but, in truth, they had no way of tracking the _gikon. _Rukia's sensor was for hollows only, while _gikon _souls were too far from those of humans to be tracked by _reiatsu. _Common sense suggested a rogue _gikon _might try to keep out of public places, avoiding unnecessary attention, and that was why Ichigo and Rukia had come here, to a deserted warehouse a short distance from the river. She had called Urahara, but had only been able to leave a message on his phone. Ichigo was pacing like a caged animal:

"Did you see what he did? He ki- I mean, he actually ki" –

"He kissed her," Rukia said.

"Yes!"

"So what?"

"Don't you see? I'm him; he's me!"

"Yes."

"And he kissed her!"

Rukia tucked the sensor into her pocket and deigned to look at him. He was clearly agitated and, though she couldn't grasp the significance he attached to a kiss on the hand, she suspected that, like much of human life, it had a greater meaning for him than for her. Certainly, it had meant something to the girl, Inoue. For some reason, that thought irritated Rukia:

"I don't see what the fuss is about. People were doing things far worse than kissing in the book I was reading."

"What book were you - ? Oh, never mind. You wouldn't understand. It's school. You can't kiss girls at school." Under Rukia's solid gaze, he stopped pacing and became serious: "What is he then? You know something, don't you?"

"He's not a _gikon," _she said: "From what I can gather, he's a mod soul."

"What's a mod soul?"

"Nearly two hundred years ago, the Soul Society began a project called Spearhead. It involved creating souls for the purpose of combatting hollow. They were placed in the bodies of dead humans; they had superior strength, speed and fighting skills. They were the ultimate weapon of Soul Society."

"What happened?"

"They were using dead humans. The project was abandoned on moral grounds. All the mod souls were destroyed, except, it seems, this one."

"Destroyed?" A strange light touched Ichigo's eyes.

"Yes."

"You mean, they were destroyed by the people who created them just because they were of no use to them anymore?"

"You couldn't have super-strong humans walking around without people noticing!" Rukia answered, surprised at his challenge. She might have laughed, but his face was bleak.

"Don't you think that's unfair?"

The question hung in the air.

Rukia sat very still, trying to wrap her thoughts around it before she answered. Her response, she realised, was important somehow. The distance between herself and the human boy had never felt so great as it did now that they were sitting, face to face, in the shadows of the warehouse:

"Fairness," she said carefully: "Is of no concern to the _shinigami."_

The words seemed to settle on him and his expression changed, not to one of anger or even affront. Rather, it was the same expression he'd worn when she'd first described the duties of a _shinigami _ and their willingness to die for the humans they protected. It was an expression of pity, and possibly of disappointment, so brief that she could easily have missed it.

"Alright," he said, shucking back his robes and standing up: "Let's keep looking. I don't want my reputation to be damaged any more than it has been."

She rolled her eyes:

"You mean you actually intended on having that reputation?"

His face softened as he turned back to her:

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. But, Rukia, how do you think it would feel to have been sentenced to destruction, to be sure that you were going to die and then suddenly to be set free, put inside a new body and given a new life?"

"I don't know," Rukia answered as she followed him out: "I've never really thought about it."


	6. Chapter 6

**If you enjoyed this story, please check my profile page for the next in the series . It lists them in order so you shouldn't have any trouble finding them. Thanks!**


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